One of the most hazardous situations a flight crew can face is a fire while the aircraft is airborne. Without aggressive intervention by the flight crew and/or fire-suppression system installed on the aircraft, an onboard fire during flight can lead to a catastrophic loss of the aircraft within a very short time.
Today, some aircraft compartments have fire-suppression systems to deal with a fire that may occur in one or more of the compartments. Such fire-suppression systems typically disperse an extinguishing agent (e.g., liquefied gas) such as Halon 1211, Halon 1301, or combination thereof to suppress the fire. In many instances, the systems are configured to release a rapid discharge of the extinguishing agent to provide a high concentration level of the agent in order to achieve a fast flame knockdown. For example, the rapid discharge may be achieved by releasing the entire contents of one or more pressurized containers (e.g., bottles) of the agent into the compartments.
Further, in particular instances, many systems are configured to follow the rapid discharge with a maintained concentration of an extinguishing agent at some reduced level in the container area in order to sustain fire suppression. For example, the concentration of the extinguishing agent may be maintained in the compartment or cargo container by providing a substantially continuous, regulated flow of the agent from one or more pressurized containers over a period of time.
Another tactic typically employed if a fire is detected in an aircraft during flight is to land the aircraft as-soon-as-possible. Thus, when the aircraft descends, the cargo containers of the aircraft normally undergo a repressurization. In addition, the containers may also experience an increase in leakage. In many instances, the repressurization and increased leakage may cause additional air to be presented into the container and as a result, the concentration of the extinguishing agent may decrease as the aircraft descends. Therefore, many fire-suppression systems may compensate for the decrease in concentration during descent by maintaining a higher concentration of the agent in the container during cruise before the descent of the aircraft. For instance, the fire-suppression systems may discharge a second high concentration level of the agent into the cargo container as the aircraft begins its descent.
Thus, in instances in which the system provides the multiple discharges of suppression agent, the conventional fire-suppression system must contain enough extinguishing agent to provide the initial rapid discharge, to maintain the concentration during the flight time, and to provide an optional second rapid discharge upon the aircraft beginning its descent. Therefore, a drawback to many conventional fire-suppression systems is that such systems must carry hundreds of pounds of extinguishing agent(s) on each flight to ensure that the fire-suppression systems will have enough agent to meet the concentration level requirements at all times in the event a fire condition occurs in one or more of the cargo containers of the aircraft. The weight of the agent negatively impacts the aircraft's fuel efficiency. Therefore, a need exists in the art for improved systems and methods that require aircraft to carry less extinguishing agent during a flight and still ensure adequate fire-suppression capabilities. Further, a need exists in the art for improved suppression agents that may improve upon the fire suppression capabilities of traditional fire suppression agents.